The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1887-09-15


number of the check I'll up the blank, sign
your name and hand 1t to her There is no
need OF wasting time, Those poor children
on the back street have been hungry long
enough, That sick man must have some
farina, That coasumptive must have some
thing 10 ease his cough. Inject this delegate
OF relief society coming out of the store of
get the money! "Of course, she says, ~
got the money; that's what went for. Tho
Lord told me to go in and get 1t, and he never
sends me on FOOLS errand"
Again, l have to tell you that it is a
woman's specific right to comfort under the
stress Of dire disaster, She is called the
weaker vessel, but all profane as well as
sacred history attests that when the crisis
comes she is better prepared than man to
meet the emergency. How often you have
seen q woman who seemed to be disciple of
frivolity and Incidence, who, under one stroke
OF calamity, changed to a heroine. Oh, what
great mistake those business men make
who never tell their business troubles to their
wives! There comes some great loss to their
store or some of their companions in bust
ness play them q sad trick, and they carry
the burden all alone, He isasked in the house
hold again and again. What is the matter,
but he believes it sort of Christian duty
to keep all that trouble within his own
soul. Oh, your first duty was to tell
your wife all about it, She perhaps might
not have disentangled your finances or ex-
tended your credit but she would have
helped you to bear misfortune You have no
right to carry on ona shoulder that which is
intended for two. There are business men
here who know what l mean. There came
a crisis in your affairs, You struggled
brave,y and long, but after while there
came day when you said "Here | shall
have to stop" and you called in your part
ners, and yon called in tine most prominent
men in your employ, and you said; "We have
got to STOP You left the store suddenly.
You coul hardly make up your mind to pass
through the street and over on the ferryboat.
You felt everybody would be looking at you
and blaming you and denouncing you. You
FASTENED home. You told our wife all about
the affair. What did she say! Did she play
the butterfly! Did she talk about the silks and
the ribbons and the fashions. No. She came
the stroke She helped you to begin to plan
right away. She offered to go out of the
comfortable house into a smaller one, and
wear the old cloak another winter. She was
one who understood your affairs without
blaming you You looked upon what you
thought was a thin, weak woman's arm hold
ing you up, but while you looked at that arm
there came into the feeble muscles of it the
strength of the eternal God. No Gliding.
No frettng. No telling you about the beau
tiful house Of her father, from which you
brought her ten, twenty, or thirty years ago
You said: "Well, this is the happiest day of
my life. 1 am glad have gotten from under
my burden. Ny wife don't care-I don't
care" At the moment you were utterly ex-
hausted, God sent n Deborah to meet
the host of the Amalekites and scatter them
like chaf over the plain. There are some
times women who sit reading sentimental
novels, and who wish that they had some
grand field in which to display their Chris
tian powers. Oh, what grand and glorious
things they could do if they only had an OPP
purtunity! My sister, you need not wait for
any such time. crisis will come in your
affairs. There will be Thermopyle in
your own household, where God will tell you
to stand. There are scores and hundreds of
households to-day where as much bravery and
courage are demanded of woman as was ex-
hbited by Grace Darling, or Marie Antoi-
nette, or Joan of Arc.
Again | remark, it is woman's right to
bring to us the kingdom of heaven. 1t is
easier for woman to be Christian than for
a man. Why? You say she is weaker. No.
Her heart is more responsive to the pleadings
of divine love. She is in vast majority. The
fact that she can more easily become Chris
tian, prove by the statement that three
fourths of the members of the churches in all
Christendom are women. So God appoints
them to be the chief agencies for bringing
this world back to God. | may stand
here and say the soul is immortal. There lisa
man who will refute it. | may stand here
and say we are lost and undone without
Christ There is a man who will refute it. |
may stand here and say there will be a Judg-
ment Day after while. Wonder is some one
who will refute it. But Christian woman
in a Christian household, living in the
faith and the consistency of Chrst's
Gospel-nobody can refute that. The
greatest sermons are not preached on cele-
brated platforms; they are preached with an
audience of two or three and in private home
life. A consistent, consecrated Christian
service is an unanswerable demonstration OF
Gods truth. A sailor came slipping down
the ratlines one night, as though something
had happened, and the sailors cried: whats
the matterN He said: "My mothers prayers
haunt ME like ghost" Home influences,
consecrated, Christian home influences, are
the mightiest of all influences upon the soul.
There are men here to-day who have main
tainei their integrity. not because they were
any better naturally than some other people,
but because there were home influences pray
ing for them all the time. They got good
start. They were launched on the wGrld
with the benedictions of Christian mother
They may track Siberian SHOWS, they may
plunge in African junges, they may fly to
the earths end-they cannot 60 so far and so
stand before women to-day who have the
eternal salvation of their husbands in their
right hand. On the marriage day you took
an oath before men and angels that you
would be faithful and kind until death did
you part, and | believe you are going to keep
that oath; but after that parting at the door
of the grave will il be an eternal separation!
Is there any such thing as an immortal mar
riage, making the flowers that grow on the
top of the sepulcher brighter than the gar
lands which at the marriage banquet foo led
The air with aromas Yes; stand here as a
priest of the most high God, to proclaim the
banns of an immortal union for all those who
join hands in the grace of Christ. o woman,
Is your HUSBAND yonr father, your son, away
from God! The Lord demands their redemp-
ton at your hands. There are prayers for
you to offer, there are exhortations for you
to give, there are examples for you to set:
and say now, as Paul sud to the Corinthan
woman: "What knoweSt thou. o woman, but
thou Canst save thy husbands"
A man wasdying: and he said to his wife:
'Rebecca, You wouldn't let me have family
prayers; and you laughed about all that, and
you got me away into worldiness; and now
am going to die, and my fate is sealed, and
you are the cause of my ruin!' o woman,
what knowest thou but thou canst destroy
thy husband! Are there not some here who
not some here who have wandered far away
from God, who can remember the Christian
influences in the early home' Do not de
| spise those influences, my brother. If you
die without Christ, what will you dc
with your mothers prayers, with your
wfe's opportunities, with your sisters
entreaties! What will you do with
the letters they used to write to you, with
the memory of tuesdays when they atten lie
you SO kindly in times of sickness! Oh, il
there be just one strand holding you from
floating off on that dark sea, | would just
like this morning to take hold of that strand
and pull you to the beach For the sake Of
| your wife's God for the sake of your mothers
God, for the sake of your daughters God TO,
che sake of your sisters God, come this day
and be saved
| Lastly, wish to say that one of the specific
rights of woman is, through the grace Of
| Christ. finally to reach Heaven Mary
| Christ's mother, in Heaven: Elizabeth Fry il
| Heaven; Charlotte Elizabeth in Heaven; the
mother of Augustine in Heaven the Countess
| of Huntingdon-who sold her splendid Jewel.
to build chapels--in Heaven: while a great
many others who have never been heard Of
| on earth or known but little, have gone int